How to delete duplicate photos on macOS Ventura?
On macOS Ventura, Apple has added a new Duplicates album to the Photos app, accessible from the left sidebar. Inside it, the detected video or photo duplicates are listed chronologically with a Merge option next to each set.
When you merge the items, it will keep the version that has the highest quality and most metadata and move the rest to the "Recently Deleted" folder. For instance, if you have two duplicates, one has a higher resolution and another has more metadata, the Photos app will combine the best qualities from both copies into one image and retain it.
It's worth mentioning that the Ventura Photos Duplicates album will only appear when there are indeed duplicates in your Photos library.
How to fix Ventura Photos Duplicates not showing?
If you can't find the Duplicates album on macOS Ventura, try the following tips:
Tip 1: Give your Mac more time.
It takes time for your Mac to index your photo library and find duplicate photos and videos. This may be several hours or days depending on the size of your photo library and the tasks running in the background.
Since the detection process usually happens when your Mac is connected to power and not running other critical tasks, you can follow the steps below to reduce the needed time:
- Quit the Photos app.
- Shut down your Mac and choose not to reopen apps on startup.
- Turn your Mac on.
- Log into your Mac without launching any apps.
- Let your Mac sit overnight without going to sleep. (Change macOS sleep settings)
Tip 2: Import duplicate photos to the Photos app to trigger the feature.
If you've followed tip 1 and waited for several days, try importing some duplicate photos into the Photos app to see if it can activate the duplicate feature. You likely still need to wait for some time but it can likely accelerate the process.
Tip 3: Disable Spotlight access for photos and reenable it.
For the Ventura Photos Duplicates album to appear, your Mac has to index your photo library using Spotlight first. Therefore, if the Duplicate searching feature doesn't work or can't find all the duplicate photos, you can rebuild the Spotlight indexing for photos to restart the detection process.
